Customer Experience Improvement Program: The vSphere customer experience improvement program is introduced to collect configuration data for vSphere and transmit weekly to VMware for analysis in understanding the usage and improving the product. For more details, see the vSphere Documentation Center.

Resolved Issues - This release of vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2 addresses issues that have been documented in the Resolved Issues section.

Earlier Releases of vCenter Server 5.5

Features and known issues of vCenter Server are described in the release notes for each release. Release notes for earlier releases of vCenter Server 5.5 are:

Internationalization

Compatibility and Installation

ESXi, vCenter Server, and vSphere Web Client Version Compatibility

The VMware
Product Interoperability Matrix provides details about the compatibility of current and earlier
versions of VMware vSphere components, including ESXi, VMware vCenter Server, the vSphere Web Client,
and optional VMware products. Check the VMware
Product Interoperability Matrix also for information about supported management
and backup agents before you install ESXi or vCenter Server.

The vSphere Client and the vSphere Web Client are packaged on the vCenter Server ISO. You can install one
or both clients by using the VMware vCenter™ Installer wizard.

Upgrades for This Release

For instructions about upgrading vCenter Server, see the vSphere Upgrade documentation.

Open Source Components for VMware vSphere 5.5

The copyright statements and licenses applicable to the open source software components distributed in
vSphere 5.5 are available at http://www.vmware.com/download/vsphere/open_source.html,
on the Open Source tab. You can also download the source files for any GPL, LGPL, or other similar licenses that require the source code or modifications to source code
to be made available for the most recent available release of vSphere.

Product Support Notices

vSphere Web Client.

New: Starting with vSphere 5.5 Update 2, Windows XP and Windows Vista are not supported as vSphere Client Operating System. You can find the complete list of operating system supported by vSphere Web Client in the VMware Compatibility Guide.

Because Linux platforms are no longer supported by Adobe Flash, vSphere Web
Client is not supported on the Linux OS. Third party browsers that add support for Adobe Flash on the Linux desktop
OS might continue to function.

VMware Tools. Beginning with vSphere 5.5, all information about how to install and configure VMware Tools
in vSphere is merged with the other vSphere documentation. For information about using VMware Tools in
vSphere, see the vSphere documentation. Installing and Configuring VMware Tools is not relevant to
vSphere 5.5 and later.

vSphere Data Protection. vSphere Data Protection 5.1 is not compatible with vSphere 5.5 because of a change in the way vSphere Web Client
operates. vSphere Data Protection 5.1 users who upgrade to vSphere 5.5 must also update vSphere Data Protection to continue
using vSphere Data Protection.

Internationalization

Global shortcut keys in the vSphere Web Client overlap Danish keyboard shortcuts
Danish keyboards contain a key Alt Gr that performs the same operation as Ctrl + Alt. The vSphere Web Client uses Ctrl + Alt as a shortcut precursor for global shortcuts. On a Danish keyboard when you attempt to type in symbols like @, #, $, %, and ^ in any of the form fields of an vSphere Web Client application using the Alt Gr key, you might be navigated to the home screen instead.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Server Configuration

Unable to connect to the NTP servers when configuring multiple NTP servers through vSphere Web Client
When you attempt to configure multiple Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers through vSphere Web Client, the entries are garbled and the time is not synchronized with the NTP servers. The NTP client is unable to connect to the NTP servers and an entry similar to the following example is logged in the syslog.log file:

ntpd_intres[2461573]: host name not found: xxx.xxx.x.x,xxx.xxx.x.x

This issue is resolved in this release.

Host profile answer file might not be applied when you reboot the ESXi host
After you restart the VMware VirtualCenter Server services, if you use Auto Deploy to reboot a stateless ESXi host, the host profile answer file might not be applied to an ESXi host. As a result, the host configuration might fail. This issue occurs if the reference host is not available.

This issue is resolved in this release.

vCenter Appliance deployment initiates unwanted DHCP request in a static network setting
On vCenter Appliance (VCVA) deployment, the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) request is initiated even in a static setting. In a dynamic DNS environment, the DHCP request registers an entry on the DNS server and might result in the vCenter Appliance host name and IP Address setting to be inconsistent in the static network setting.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Security

Oracle (Sun) JRE is updated to version 1.7.0_55
The Oracle (Sun) JRE is updated to version JRE 1.7.0_55 to address multiple security issues. See Oracle Update Release Notes for details.

The tc Server is updated to version 2.9.5 to address multiple security issues
The tc Server is updated to version 2.9.5 to address multiple security issues. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the names CVE-2013-4286, CVE-2013-4590, and CVE-2013-4222 to these issues.

The Apache Struts library is updated to address a security issue
The Apache Struts library is updated to address a security issue. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the names CVE-2014-0114 to this issue.

Deployment of virtual machines through vCloud Director might fail due to incorrect storage profile migration
When you upgrade storage profiles with large number of objects, the upgrade might take a long time. During the upgrade, if the profile-based management service is restarted the upgrade might fail and deployment of virtual machines through vCloud Director (vCD) might fail.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Upgrade and Install

After an upgrade from vCenter Server 4.x to 5.x, the vSphere Web Client, Hardware Status, Health Status, and Storage view do not function
When you upgrade from vCenter Server 4.x to 5.x, the vSphere Web Client, Hardware Status, vCenter Server Health Status, and Storage view do not function. The issue occurs because vCenter Server 4.x supports SSL certificates with 512 bits, but vCenter Server 5.x only supports SSL certificates with a bit length greater than or equal to 1024 bits due to a certificate key length constraint added with a JRE update in vCenter Server 5.5 Update 1. If the bit length of vCenter Server certificates are less than 1024 bits, the upgrade process stops and a warning message prompts you to replace the vCenter Server certificates for the upgrade to proceed successfully.

This issue is resolved in this release by providing a check for the certificate key length and an appropriate warning message to guide you.

Command-line upgrade from vCenter Server 5.1 to 5.5 adds a redundant step to the Past Day statistics rollup job
When you perform a command-line upgrade from vCenter Server 5.1 to 5.5, the database upgrade process modifies the Past Day stats rollup job and adds a redundant job step, Delete past day rolled up records, which attempts to run the purge_stat1_proc procedure which no longer exists.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Upgrade from vCenter Single Sign-On 5.1 Update x to 5.5 Update 2 fails if the password set for administrator@vsphere.local contains double quotation mark (")
When you attempt to upgrade from vCenter Single Sign-On 5.1 Update x to 5.5 Update 2, you are required to provide a new password for the user name administrator@vsphere.local. If the new password contains the double quotation mark (") character, the installer rolls back and the upgrade fails.

This issue is resolved in this release.

vCenter Server, vSphere Client and vSphere Web Client

The VMware VirtualCenter Server service might fail upon reboot with a Win32 Exception
If the attributes POLICY_AUTO_PREINSTALL, POLICY_AUTO_UPGRADE, or POLICY_PARTIAL_UPGRADE of the VPX_DVS table have NULL values, the VMware VirtualCenter Server service vpxd.exe might fail upon reboot. The vpxd.log file might contain an entry similar to the following example:

The VMware VirtualCenter Server service shuts down when Virtual Flash is enabled on the ESXi host
When you enable Virtual Flash on the ESXi host, the VMware VirtualCenter Server service shuts down as the vpxd.exe and java.exe use up all the CPU resources. The Inventory Service data folder increases rapidly in size and reduces the available disk space. Messages similar to the following example are logged in the vpxd.log file:

Attempts to start HTML console from the vSphere Web Client might fail
Attempts to open a virtual machine console in the vSphere Web Client might fail if the vCenter Server is installed with a custom port and the VMware Remote Console (VMRC) plug-in is not installed.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Unable to change from physical to virtual compatibility mode in the vSphere Web Client
You might be unable to change the Raw Device Mapping (RDM) from physical to virtual compatibility mode when using the vSphere Web Client if the virtual machine resides on a NFS
datastore. The compatibility option might be grayed out when you attempt to add a LUN to the virtual machine.

This issue is resolved in this release.

No option to unmount force-mounted datastore through the vSphere Web Client
When using the vSphere Web Client, you do not have an option to unmount the force-mounted datastore. You can right-click the force mounted datastore and select the Delete option to
remove the datastore from the inventory without losing the data.

This issue is resolved in this release by displaying the following message to confirm that you can remove the force-mounted datastore from the inventory with the Delete
option:

Delete the selected datastore(s)?This operation will permanently delete all the files associated with the virtual machines on the datastore.Force mounted VMFS datastore(s) will be removed from the inventory but the data on them will not be deleted.

Attempts to simultaneously unregister multiple virtual machines in vApp fail with a managed object not found exception
Attempts to unregister multiple virtual machines simultaneously in a vApp fail with a managed object not found exception similar to the following example is logged in the vpxd.log file:

Unable to set higher values for peak bandwidth and average bandwidth of traffic shaping in host profiles
When you attempt to change the peak bandwidth and average bandwidth in the host profiles to large values like 1 Gbps through the vSphere Web Client, the following error message appears:

Profile validation failed. Check the profile for errors.

The issue occurs because the vSphere Web Client is unable to handle double values while converting the input value to a long object.

This issue is resolved in this release.

vCenter Server Appliance sets a wrong hostname after deployment
If the vCenter Server Appliance is deployed in a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) environment that has static IP configuration and no hostname is assigned, the reverse lookup from the IP is not performed correctly. A wrong hostname might be set which does not align with the FQDN naming.

This issue is resolved in this release.

vCenter Server might stop functioning if the disk space on the database server is exhausted
By default, vCenter Server does not apply a retention policy on the data stored in the vCenter Server database. Over a period of time, the growth of the database files consumes all the available disk capacity and prevents the database server and vCenter Server from functioning properly.

This release resolves the issue by displaying a warning in the vSphere Web Client when the database server's available disk space is low. See VMware Knowledge base article 2078305 for details.

Virtual machine console opens with a delay if VMware Workstation is installed
On any machine where VMware Workstation is installed, the virtual machine console opens up with a delay in the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client. The delay might range anywhere from 2 to more than 10 seconds.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Attempts to re-register the vSphere Web Client using the client-repoint.bat command might fail if the vCenter Single Sign-On password set for administrator@vsphere.local contains an exclamation mark (!)
Attempts to re-register the vSphere Web Client using the client-repoint.bat command might fail with the following error message if the vCenter Single Sign-On password set for administrator@vsphere.local contains an exclamation mark (!):

Return code is: invalidInput -2

This issue is resolved in this release.

vSphere Web Client displays incorrect vmnic Teaming and Failover order when editing vSwitch settings
When you invoke vSwitch Edit settings dialog box in the vSphere Web Client, the vmnic Teaming and Failover order might be displayed incorrectly. This issue occurs if you have made changes to the vmnic Teaming and Failover order earlier in the vSwitch Edit Settings dialog box and then cancelled it.

This issue is resolved in this release.

The vSphere Web Client console does not load when you copy and paste the VMware Remote Console URL from one browser to another
When you attempt to reuse an existing VMware Remote Console (VMRC) URL by copying and pasting the URL from one browser to another, the New Generation Client console does not load.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Unable to log in to vSphere Client using administrator@vsphere.local during loss of domain connectivity
Attempts to log in to the vSphere Client using the username administrator@vsphere.local might fail in an environment where Active Directory (Integrated Windows Authentication) identity source is configured and if there is a loss of connectivity to the domain. The following error message is displayed:

A general system error occurred: 'alias' value should not be empty

You are able to log in to the vSphere Web Client, but attempts to access the Single Sign-On Identity Source configuration fails with the following error message:

'alias' value should not be empty

This issue is resolved in this release.

The VMware VirtualCenter service might fail due to SQL query execution failure
VMware VirtualCenter service (vpxd.exe) might fail due to an SQL query execution failure during the host-sync process. The vpxd.log file might contain the following entry:

Attempts to log in to vCenter Server 5.5 using the vSphere Web Client fails with the error: An internal error has occurred - Error #1009
After you successfully upgrade to vCenter Server 5.5, attempts to log in to vCenter Server 5.5 using the vSphere Web Client fail with the following error message:

Unable to edit settings for virtual machines with hardware version 10 using the vSphere client
When you attempt to perform the Edit Settings operation using the vSphere Client (C# Client) in a virtual machine with hardware version 10 (vmx-10), the attempt fails with the following error message:

You cannot use the vSphere client to edit the settings of virtual machines of version 10 or higher. Use the vSphere Web Client to edit the settings of this virtual machine.

This issue is resolved in this release.

vCenter Server takes a long time to upload file
Attempts to upload files through vCenter Server by using HTTP connections take a long time due to an anomaly. The vCenter Server is unable to handle multiple chunks in the HTTP request header. If vCenter Server is under a heavy load, uploading large files through it might still take longer than uploading files through ESXi hosts, due to the limited bandwidth that vCenter can provide at that time. Uploading large files through vCenter Server is not advisable because vCenter Server handles heavy network traffic load.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Client Integration Plug-In might not work as expected if you log in to the vSphere Web Client using Internet Explorer 11
When you log in to the vSphere Web Client using Internet Explorer 11 and perform tasks related to Client Integration Plug-In, you might encounter issues listed here:

Even if the Client Integration Plug-In is installed, the following message is displayed when you attempt to import or export an OVF template:

Download the Client Integration Plug-in

File browser does not allow you to upload or download a file from the datastore.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Unable to load the mail setting wizard from the vCenter Server settings page
In vSphere Web Client, when you navigate to the vCenter Server settings page and click on Mail option, the mail configuration page does not load.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Virtual machines with HTML 5 console in vSphere 5.5 open connections with http:// instead of https://
When the HTML 5 console is launched on a virtual machine, it uses connections like http:// and web sockets like ws:// instead of secure connections like https:// and wss://.

This release resolves the issue by launching the virtual machine console with secure connection over port 7343 instead of the connection over port 7331.

vCenter Inventory Service fails to start in vCenter Server Appliance 5.x
When the certificate-regeneration option is enabled in the vCenter Appliance 5.x, after a reboot you might encounter symptoms like the vCenter Server inventory is not visible, changes made in the inventory are not retained, or the vCenter Inventory Service does not start. The issue occurs as the registration between vCenter Server and Inventory Service is not triggered due to an internal conflict.

OpenSSL library is updated to version openssl-1.0.1h
The OpenSSL library is updated to version openssl-1.0.1h to update the openSSL DLL files at certain locations in the C:\Program Files\VMware\CIS\* install directory.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Virtual Machine Management

A message stating that the virtual machine might have been moved or copied might be displayed when you deploy a virtual machine from template
After you deploy a virtual machine from a template, if you attempt to power on the virtual machine on a different host, the following virtual machine message might appear:

This virtual machine might have been moved or copied. In order to configure certain management and networking features, VMware ESX needs to know if this virtual machine was
moved or copied. If you don't know, answer "I...

Cancel

I moved it

I copied it

This issue is resolved in this release.

vMotion and Storage vMotion

Attempts to perform vMotion of a virtual machine back to the original host might fail, if a memory reservation is set on for the virtual machine
After you perform vMotion of a virtual machine, the resource reservation information on the ESXi host might not be updated immediately. The default time for resource update is 30 minutes. This issue occurs in standalone hosts. If you have a virtual machine with resource reservation that is more than 50 percent of its host's available capacity and you migrate it away, you might not be able to migrate it back within 30 minutes, even though the original host has enough resources available.

This issue is resolved in this release.

VMware VirtualCenter Server service might fail with vim.fault.NoDiskSpace exception
When multiple dependent Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS) recommendations are applied, the VMware VirtualCenter Server service (vpxd.exe) might fail with an vim.fault.NoDiskSpace exception. The vpxd.log file might contain a message similar to the following example:

Orphaned virtual machine disks migh be created when a Storage vMotion task is performed during a virtual machine backup
While performing a virtual machine level backup, the backup system informs vCenter Server to disable Storage vMotion for that virtual machine to ensure successful backup. However, if the Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS) automation is set to Fully Automated, SDRS might automatically start a migration, or allow you to manually perform a Storage vMotion task through the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client. This action might result in orphaned virtual machine disks (VMDKs) to remain in the virtual machine folder.

This issue is resolved in this release.

vCenter Single Sign-On

Slow start up of Identity Management Service might result in the VMware Secure Token Service and VMware VirtualCenter Server service start up to fail
When multiple services are starting up simultaneously during a system boot, the Identity Management Service (IDM) takes a long time to start. Due to this delay, the VMware Secure Token Service attempts to connect to the IDM that is still not available and results in start up failure. This makes VMware VirtualCenter Server service start up to fail with below error message being logged in the vpxd.log file:

Unable to create SSO facade: Invalid response code: 404 Not Found.

The following messages are logged in the ssoAdminServer.log file to report the failure:

The VMwareIdentityMgmtService.<DATE>.log file reports the time it started IDM as shown in the following example:

[<DATE TIME>] [info] Service started in <duration> ms.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Attempts to query for users with the vSphere Web Client might fail
Attempts to query for users with the vSphere Web Client might fail when open LDAP identity source is added and where the user has pwdAccountLockedTime attribute set as 000001010000Z. Error messages similar to the following example are logged in:

Attempts to upgrade or install vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 fail if incorrect deployment option is selected
When you attempt to upgrade or install the vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5, selecting the incorrect option will cause the upgrade or install process to fail.

This issue is resolved in this release by providing updated text on the different deployment modes for clarity.

Attempts to install vCenter Server with embedded database might fail*
While installing vCenter Server, if you create a valid unrequired Data Source Name (DSN) on a database other than the local bundled database, select it, click Next, and then if you click back to come back to the DSN selection screen and choose the bundled database instead of the custom database, the installation fails with the following error message.

Error 25060.Setup failed to execute sqlcmd.exe

Workaround: To resolve this issue, relaunch the installer for a successful installation.

Attempts to install vCenter Single Sign On 5.5 Update 2 or upgrade from vCenter Sign On 5.1 Update x fail if the password set for administrator@vsphere.local contains backslash (\) at the end
When you attempt to upgrade from vCenter Single Sign On 5.1 update X to 5.5 Update 2 or install vCenter Single Sign On 5.5 Update 2, you must provide a new password for the user name administrator@vsphere.local. If the new password contains the backslash (\) character at the end, the installer rolls back and the installation or upgrade fails.

Workaround: To resolve this issue, restart the installer and set a valid password without the backslash (\) character at the end for administrator@vsphere.local.

List of services registered with vCenter Single Sign-On display incorrect version of vCenter Server 5.5 and vSphere Web Client 5.5 as version 5.1
After you upgrade from earlier versions of vCenter Server 5.5 to vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2, if you view the list of services registered with VMware vCenter Single Sign-On using the ssocli tool, the version of vCenter Server 5.5 and the vSphere Web Client 5.5 are incorrectly displayed as version 5.1.

Workaround: None.

Attempts to upgrade from earlier versions of vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 to 5.5 Update 2 might fail if the Windows Error Reporting Service is disabled
When you attempt to upgrade from earlier versions of vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 to vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 Update 2, if the Windows Error Reporting Service is disabled, the VMware Directory Service (vmdird.exe) does not restart as required. When the vmdird.exe is unable to start, attempts to upgrade to vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 fail with the following error.

Error 1920. Service 'VMware Directory Service' (VMWareDirectoryService) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services.

You can also see the werfault.exe file running in the Task Manager when you encounter this problem.

Note: To avoid this issue, keep the Windows Error Reporting enabled during the upgrade process.

Workaround: To resolve this issue, stop the werfault.exe process from the Task Manager and the upgrade process will continue successfully.

Attempts to upgrade to vSphere Web Client 5.5 fails with an error if any of the vSphere Web Client SSL certificates are expiredWhen you attempt to upgrade vSphere Web Client from version 5.0 or 5.1 to 5.5, if any of the vSphere Web Client SSL certificates are expired, the installer fails with the following error message:

Error 29113. SSO registration failed

Workaround: To resolve this issue, check the validity of the SSL certificates of the vSphere Web Client and replace any expired SSL certificates with valid certificates before attempting the upgrade process again.

Storage profiles not visible in the vSphere Web client after you install and uninstall vCenter Server
If you uninstall vCenter Server from the Windows control panel item Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features, Profile-Driven Storage is also uninstalled. When you reinstall vCenter Server, Profile-Driven Storage service is also installed, but you cannot see previously created Storage Profiles in the vSphere Web Client. New Storage Profiles can still be created.

Workaround: To uninstall vCenter Server without uninstalling Profile-Driven Storage, use an MSI command. Then, when you reinstall vCenter Server, either through the installer wizard or from the command line, you can still see previously created Storage Profiles in the vSphere Web Client.

To uninstall vCenter Server, use the following sample command as a model:msiexec.exe /x vCenter Server Product code
For example:msiexec.exe /x {E1F05550-4238-4378-87F0-105147A251D9}
The exact product code for vCenter can be obtained from the registry entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\VMware vCenter Server.

Login might fail for Local OS users if vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 includes more than one node
The Local OS identity source is available after install or upgrade, as follows:

The vCenter Single Sign-On installer adds the Local OS identity source to the vCenter Single Sign-On configuration.
If you create more than one node, the Local OS from the primary node displays as an identity source on all other nodes.

If you upgrade a vCenter Single Sign-On High Availability environment, Local OS from the primary node displays as an identity source on all other nodes.
However, even though the Local OS from the first node displays as an identity source in secondary nodes, Local OS users from the first node cannot log in on those secondary nodes.

Workaround:None.

Installation using Simple Install fails on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 2012 hosts
If you use Simple Install to install vCenter Server and components on a Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 2012 host, and the host is configured to use DHCP IP addressing, the installation fails with warning and error messages.

Workaround: Take one of the following actions.

On a Windows Server 2008 R2 or 2012 host: configure Windows Server to use a static IP and hostname.

On a Windows Server 2008 R2 host only: map the DHCP IP and hostname to the system's HOST file in the operating system.

During vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 installation, you cannot specify a host name that is different than the FQDN of the machine on which you are installing vCenter Single Sign-On
The vCenter Single Sign-On installer does not have the option to specify a host name during installation. The installer always uses the FQDN of the machine on which you are installing vCenter Single Sign-On. You cannot use a CNAME instead of the FQDN during installation.

Workaround: None.

Error message 25205 appears during installation of vCenter Server on Turkish version of Windows Server
On any Turkish version of Windows Server 2008 or 2012, when you install vCenter Server with the vCenter Server database on the same host machine, Error message 25205 appears.

Workaround: Install and run the vCenter Server database from a remote English version of Windows Server.

Simple Install checks space requirements only on system drive
Simple Install checks whether enough space is available before it starts the installation. However, it performs the check only if you install on a system drive. If you attempt to install on a non-system drive, the installer does not check whether enough space is available.

Workaround: Check the disk space available on the target drive before installation. The minimum required free space for Simple Install is 10GB. More space is recommended. See the Installation and Setup documentation.

If the vCenter Single Sign-On installation fails and rolls back, the vCenter Server Java
Components (JRE) and vCenter tc Server component remain installed
When the Single Sign-On installation is canceled or fails, the installation rolls back to the pre-installation state, and a message states that the system was not modified. However, the vCenter Server Java Components (JRE) and vCenter tc Server component are still installed.

Workaround: Remove the components manually in the Windows Programs and Feature control panel.

Workaround: Make sure the installation path contains only ASCII characters.

Installation of vCenter Server and related components fails if the user name of the logged-in user contains non-ASCII characters
If the user name of the user who is currently logged in contains non-ASCII characters, installation of vCenter Server, vCenter Inventory Server, vCenter Single Sign-On, or the vSphere Web Client fails with the error message: The user name contains non-ASCII characters. Please log in with a user name that contains only ASCII characters.

Workaround: Log in with a user name that does not contain non-ASCII characters and retry the installation.

The autoPartition boot option might partition SSDs unintentionally
In Visor (an ESXi dd image written to a device), the autoPartition boot option is set to TRUE by default. This setting causes all blank local disks, including SSDs that you might have intended to use with vFlash and Virtual SAN, to be partitioned.

Workaround: Add skipPartitioningSsds=TRUE to the boot options line.

During vCenter Server Simple Install, a dialog box displays a warning that a script is causing the browser to run slowly
The vCenter Server Simple Install option takes a significant amount of time to install or upgrade all required vCenter Server components. This might cause the Internet Explorer browser process that runs the vCenter Server installer autorun screen to display the following warning message:A script on this page is causing your browser to run slowly. If it continues to run, your computer might become unresponsive. Do you want to abort the script?

The warning dialog is displayed when the installation takes longer than the time set by the Windows registry entry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Styles\MaxScriptStatements

This issue has been observed most frequently on the Windows Server 2012 operating system.

Workaround: Click No in the warning message, or set the value for the MaxScriptStatements registry entry to 0xffffffff.

Upgrade to vCenter Server 5.5 does not detect expired SSL certificates
When you use Simple Install to upgrade to vCenter Server 5.5, the installer does not detect any expired SSL certificates.

If you upgrade from 5.1.x to 5.5 using the individual installers in a Custom Install, only the vSphere Web Client detects expired SSL certificates and stops the installation. vCenter Single Sign-On displays a generic warning message to verify the validity of SSL certificates. The vCenter Inventory Service and vCenter Server individual installers do not detect expired SSL certificates.

Workaround: Before you start the upgrade to vCenter Server 5.5, using either Simple Install or the individual installers in a Custom Install, check the validity of the SSL certificates of vCenter Single Sign-On, the vSphere Web Client, vCenter Inventory Service, and vCenter Server. Replace any expired SSL certificates with valid certificates before starting the upgrade process.

Storage profiles without storage capabilities might be missing after you upgrade vCenter Server to version 5.5
After you upgrade to vCenter Server 5.5, storage profiles that you created with an earlier version of vCenter Server are not visible in the vSphere Web Client. This problem affects only storage profiles that do not have any storage capabilities attached.

Workaround: Before you perform an upgrade, attach storage capabilities to the storage profiles that need to be available in vCenter Server 5.5. After the upgrade, the existing storage capabilities are converted into tags in the Legacy User Label category, and the storage profiles are converted into storage policies referencing these tags.

After you upgrade vCenter Single Sign-On 5.1.x in a high availability deployment with a load balancer to version 5.5, you must reconfigure the load balancer
During the upgrade from vCenter Single Sign-On 5.1 to 5.5, the file server.xml is migrated, but you must update the file manually after the upgrade.

Workaround: See the topic Reconfigure the Load Balancer After Upgrading a vCenter Single Sign-On High Availability Deployment to Version 5.5 in the vSphere Upgrade documentation.

vCenter Server 5.1 not visible after you upgrade vSphere Web Client and vCenter Single Sign-On to version 5.5
Suppose you upgrade vSphere Single Sign-On and the vSphere Web Client from version 5.1 to version 5.5, but you do not upgrade the vCenter Server system. If you log in to the vSphere Web Client after the upgrade, vCenter Server system version 5.1 is not visible. This is a problem only for the Windows upgrade, and not when you upgrade vCenter Server Appliance.

Workaround: Restart the vCenter Server system and the vSphere Inventory service (services.msc). To see the vCenter Server 5.1 inventory, log in as admin@System-Domain. See VMware Knowledge Base article 1003895.

The VMware VirtualCenter Server service might not start after you upgrade vCenter Server from version 5.0 Update 2 to version 5.5

Workaround: Start the VMware VirtualCenter Server service manually:

From the Windows Start menu, open the Administrative Tools control panel item.

Select Services.

Right-click VMware VirtualCenter Server and select Start.

vSphere Client and vSphere PowerCLI might fail to connect to vCenter Server 5.5, with a handshake failure
When installed on a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 host machine, the vSphere Client and vSphere PowerCLI might fail to connect to vCenter Server 5.5, with a handshake failure. vSphere 5.5 uses the Open SSL library, which, for security, is configured by default to accept only connections that use strong cipher suites. On Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, the vSphere Client and vSphere PowerCLI do not use strong cipher suites to connect with vCenter Server. The error No matching cipher suite is shown on the server side, and the handshake fails on the vSphere Client or vSphere PowerCLI side.

For Windows XP 32 bit, Windows XP 64 bit, or Windows Server 2003, take one of the following actions.

Before you install the vSphere Client or vSphere PowerCLI on the host machine, upgrade the Windows operating system to Windows Vista or later.

On the vCenter Server host machine, reduce the implied security by allowing the server to communicate using weak cipher suites. To do this, include the following section in the vCenter Server vpxd.cfg file:<config>
...
<vmacore>
...
<ssl>
...
<cipherList>ALL</cipherList>
...
</ssl>
...
</vmacore>
...
</config>

Networking is lost after you upgrade the vCenter Server Appliance, if the existing vCenter Server Appliance has a static IP configuration and the existing vCenter Server Appliance and the upgraded vCenter Server Appliance are in different subnets
Networking is lost after you upgrade a vCenter Server Appliance configured with both of the following conditions:

The existing vCenter Server Appliance has a static IP configuration.

The existing vCenter Server Appliance and the upgraded vCenter Server Appliance are in different subnets.

Workaround: To restore networking:

Log in to the vCenter Server Appliance through the virtual machine console.

Run /opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_config_net to reconfigure networking.

Attempts to upgrade the vSphere Web Client to version 5.5 results in warning message: Error: 29108
During the upgrade of the vSphere Web Client to version 5.5, the following warning message is displayed: Error: 29108. The unregistration of the service or Solution user failed.. This error occurs because the installer is unable to remove the application user programmatically.

Workaround:

Record the exact vSphere Web Client solution user named in the warning message.

Click OK to dismiss the warning message and complete the upgrade to version 5.5 of the vSphere Web Client.

Log in to the vSphere Web Client as the Single Sign-On administrator

In Administration, under Single Sign-On, click Users and Groups, and click the Application Users tab.

To remove the solution the application user named in the warning message, select the row for that user and click Delete.

The vSphere Web Client service does not start after upgrade of the vCenter Server Appliance
When you upgrade the vCenter Server appliance from version 5.0 or 5.1 to version 5.5, the vSphere Web Client service does not start and the following messages appear in the Virgo Server log:
[ERROR] startup-tracker org.eclipse.virgo.medic.eventlog.default KE0004E Kernel failed to start within 300 seconds.
[INFO ] startup-tracker org.eclipse.virgo.medic.eventlog.default KE0011I Immediate shutdown initiated.

Workaround: Start the vSphere Web Client service by using the vCenter Server Appliance management interface.

Internationalization

Export of OVF Template fails in Traditional Chinese locale if the virtual machine name contains non-ASCII characters*
Attempts to export an OVF template fail in Traditional Chinese locale when using the Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system with Internet Explorer 11 and if the virtual machine name contains any non-ASCII characters.

vSphere Web Client in some localized languages automatically selects the first character using the Microsoft Input Method Editor in the Search box*
When you run the vSphere Web Client in Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, or Korean locale and attempt to enter local characters using Microsoft Input Method Editor (IME) in the Search box, the first character in the list automatically gets selected.

Workaround: To resolve this issue, enter a blank space before selecting any character.

In the vSphere Web Client UI, the Microsoft IME Search box does not follow the mouse cursor when you type in non-ASCII characters*
In vSphere Web Client UI, when you attempt to type in non-ASCII characters in the Microsoft Input Method Editor (IME) Search box, the mouse cursor does not appear in the field if you are using the Firefox browser. The typed text appears at the bottom of the browser. This issue occurs with Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean locale.

Workaround: To resolve this issue, take one of the following actions:

Use Internet Explorer or Chrome browser or,

Use a third-party IME with Firefox

New users with native high-ASCII password cannot log in using vSphere Web Client*
When a new user attempts to log in for the first time using the vSphere Web Client with a high-ASCII password in French and German locales, the log in attempt fails.

Workaround: To resolve this issue, log in as a vSphere Single Sign On (SSO) administrator and add any single ASCII character to the new user's existing high-ASCII password.

vCenter Single Sign-On

After removing a UPN suffix from the domain, a user with that UPN suffix is still able to log in*
A user with a UPN suffix that is removed from the domain is still able to login for up to six hours. The Identity Manager takes up to six hours to reflect the change.

Workaround: None.

After upgrading to vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2 from earlier versions of vCenter Server 5.5, attempts to log in to the vSphere Web Client on vCenter Virtual Appliance fail with an error
After you upgrade to vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2 from earlier versions of vCenter Server 5.5, attempts to log in to the vSphere Web Client on the vCenter Virtual Appliance fail with the following error message:

Automatic regeneration of the SSL certificate does not resolve the problem.

Workaround: To resolve this issue, open a Secure Shell (SSH) connection to the vCenter Virtual Appliance and run the following commands to forcibly regenerate the vCenter Server and the vCenter Single Sign-On certificates:

vdcadmintool might generate password for vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 with unsupported characters
If you use the vdcadmintool utility available at ...\VMware\Infrastructure\VMware\CIS\vmdird\vdcadmintool.exe to generate passwords, and if the password generated by the utility has invalid or unsupported characters such as semicolon (;), double quotation mark ("), circumflex (^), backslash (\) or high-ASCII, the next time you attempt to upgrade vCenter Single Sign-On, the upgrade might fail.

Workaround: If you have used the vdcadmintool utility to generate password for administrator@vsphere.local, change the password for the user by using the vSphere Web Client.

Error after switchover/failover on systems upgraded from vSphere 5.1U1a to vSphere 5.5 that use vCenter Heartbeat
An environment starts with the following configuration:
vCenter Server 5.1U1a with vCenter Single Sign-On, Inventory Service and the vSphere Web Client, plus vCenter Heartbeat 6.5U1.
You upgrade to vCenter Server 5.5, and upgrade vCenter Single Sign-On, Inventory Service and the vSphere Web Client at the same time. You upgrade vCenter Heartbeat to version 6.6.
All the VMware components and services start successfully on the primary/active node.
If the primary node goes down and you activate the secondary node, the following error appears in the vpxd log when the vCenter Server service starts on the secondary/active node:Unable to create SSO facade: Invalid response code: 404 Not Found..
The vpxd service does not start on the secondary node.

Workaround: If you install the new versions of vCenter Server and vCenter Heartbeat instead of performing an upgrade, the second node starts up as expected.
If Single Sign-On must be upgraded rather that a fresh install on a different virtual machine, follow the procedures listed in KB 2059820.

If Active Directory services and vCenter services are in different locations, a login by a user who belongs to over 500 groups might take a long time
Your environment uses an Active Directory setup. This setup is in a different location from vCenter Server and its services. As a result, when a user who belongs to over 500 Active Directory groups logs in with the vSphere Web Client, login might take 10-20 minutes. With the vSphere Client, login for that user might time out.

Workaround: Change your setup so the Active Directory services and the vCenter Server system are in the same location, or log in as a user who does not belong to so many Active Directory groups.

Auto-discovery of Active Directory settings no longer supported with vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5
The vSphere 5.1 vCenter Single Sign-On version included an autodiscovery feature. That feature was removed from the vSphere 5.5 vCenter Single Sign-On service.

Workaround: Log in to vCenter Single Sign-On from the vSphere Web Client as a user with vCenter Single Sign-On administrator privileges and add the identity source manually. By default, administrator@vsphere.local has vCenter Single Sign-On administrator privileges.

After upgrade, domain administrators, who are part of the local administrators group, cannot log in to vCenter Server
In your vSphere 5.1 environment, you gave permissions to the local administrators group, which implicitly includes the domain administrator group. You can log in to vCenter Server 5.1 as a member of the domain administrator group.
However, when you upgrade to vSphere 5.5, the domain administrator users no longer have the permissions to log in to vCenter Server. Permissions for local users are maintained after the upgrade.

Workaround: The simplest solution is to log in to vCenter Server as administrator@vsphere.local and to assign permissions directly to the domain administrators group. If other local users who were not inside a subdomain had permissions to manage to vCenter Server users before the upgrade, those users can also log in to vCenter Server and assign permissions to the domain administrators group or any other group.

vCenter Single Sign-On installation fails on Windows Server 2008 SP1
When you attempt to install vCenter Single Sign-On on Windows 2008 SP1 (64 bit), the following warning appears:This application is only supported on windows server 2008 64bit, or higher. Make sure windows is not running as domain controller.
Installation does not complete.

No error occurs when you replace the certificate for a service with a certificate already in use by a different service
If you are using the Certificate Automation Tool to replace certificates, and you respond to the prompts by replacing an existing certificate with a certificate that is already in use by a different service, the tool does not display an error message. The tool proceeds with the replacement. Because each service must have a unique certificate in the vCenter installation on Windows, authentication does not work properly.

Workaround: None. Keep track of the certificates that you are using for the different services.

Login with vCenter Single Sign-On might require inclusion of domain name
In vSphere 5.5, vCenter Single Sign-On no longer supports multiple default domains. This might cause problems for users who attempt to log in to a vCenter Server system that is installed on Windows, or for users who log in to the vCenter Server Appliance.

Workaround: Include the domain prefix with the user name when you log in to a nondefault domain. For example, the user root on the local operating system can log in as localos\root. The user user1 in the domain DOMAIN1 can log in as DOMAIN1\user1.
This behavior is not considered a bug, but included in the release notes for completeness.

vCenter Single Sign-On installation fails if the destination folder includes non-ASCII or high ASCII characters
If you change the destination folder for vCenter Single Sign-On during installation, and if the new destination folder that you select includes non-ASCII or high ASCII characters, no warning appears but installation fails.

Workaround: Select destination folders that contain ASCII characters. Special characters are not allowed and generate the error listed in the next known issue.

vCenter Single Sign-On fails if the installation folder includes special characters
If you attempt to install vCenter Single Sign-On in a custom location, and the destination folder name includes characters such as percent (%) or ampersand (&), the installation fails. An error message similar to the following appears:Error 20020. Failed to update values in server.xml file

Workaround: None. See the vSphere Installation and Setup documentation for a complete list of disallowed characters.

Networking

Attempts to name a Link Aggregation Group (LAG) port by using surrogate pair characters fails
In the vSphere Web Client, if you try to rename a LAG port and the new name contains surrogate pair characters, the following error message appears: The port name is not valid. Specify a valid port name. Surrogate pair is a pair of 16-bit values that UTF-16 uses to represent characters that require more than 16 bits.

Workaround: Do not use surrogate pair characters when you name LAG ports.

Virtual SAN

vCenter Server might stop responding when Virtual SAN VASA provider is being re-registered*
The vCenter Server might stop responding, if the host is being rebooted or if there is an issue with the connection to the host, when a Virtual SAN VASA provider is being re-registered after a prior failure.

Workaround: None.

Virtual SAN data store displays the Total capacity inclusive of capacity of both healthy and unhealthy disks
When you select a Virtual SAN Cluster and navigate to Manage > Virtual SAN > General, the Total capacity of Virtual SAN data store label value displays the storage capacity inclusive of both healthy and unhealthy disks even if the host is unreachable or if the disk is experiencing any issue. Although, the capacity of unhealthy disks is included in the total capacity it is not available for use.

Workaround: None.

Deleting any one of the two folders generated when a virtual machine is created in a Virtual SAN data store might result in deletion of the virtual machine
When you create a virtual machine in Virtual SAN data store, two folders are generated. The first folder named as the virtual machine name is the symlink to the other folder with the virtual machine's Universally Unique Identifier (UUID). Deleting either one of these results in deletion of the other folder and might lead to deletion of the virtual machine itself.

You can view these folders after logging in to vCenter Server using vSphere Web Client and vSphere Client respectively, performing the following actions:

Storage profile compliance status displayed incorrectly in the Virtual SAN User Interface
In an multinode Virtual SAN cluster with 100 virtual machines per node, when you migrate the VMs to other hosts, some of VMs show their storage profile compliance status as Unknown or Not Compliant, even though all the VM components are active. You can view the compliance status by navigating from vSphere Web Client Home Page > Rules and Profiles > VM Storage Profiles > click on the storage profile you want to check > Monitor > check the compliance status under VM and Virtual Disks.

Workaround: To resolve this issue, you must run the compliance check to refresh the compliance status. You can run the compliance check by following these steps:

Navigate to Rules and Profiles > VM Storage Profiles.

Click on the storage profile you want to check.

Go to Summary.

Click on Check Compliance.

Storage

Renamed tags appear as missing in the Edit VM Storage Policy wizard
A virtual machine storage policy can include rules based on data store tags. If you rename a tag, the storage policy that references this tag does not automatically update the tag and shows it as missing.

Workaround: Remove the tag marked as missing from the virtual machine storage policy and then add the renamed tag. Reapply the storage policy to all out-of-date entities.

Cannot configure a virtual machine with 4 MB of Flash Read Cache and a block size greater than 16 KB
When adding Flash Read Cache to a virtual machine, attempting to configure 4 MB of cache with a block size of 16 KB or greater fails. You see an error message similar to the following:

Increase the cache reservation size or decrease the block size to comply with the limits listed in the above description.

Click OK to save your changes.

Cannot power on or enlarge the cache reservation of virtual machines that have a virtual
Flash Read Cache reservation
When a virtual machine that has a virtual Flash Read Cache reservation is powered on, the host it resides on
uses normal RAM memory to manage the flash reservation. If insufficient memory is available, the virtual machine
cannot power on. If the virtual machine is running and you enlarge the Flash Read Cache reservation, the operation
fails with a runtime error because the cache cannot be attached.

Workaround: Move the virtual machine to another host or reduce the memory requirements of Flash Read Cache
by configuring a larger Flash Read Cache block size for the affected virtual machine or for another
virtual machine running on the same host. You can also reduce the Flash Read Cache
reservation of one or more of the virtual machines that reside on the host. After you make these changes,
try again to power on or reconfigure the virtual machine.
Follow the Flash Read Cache configuration recommendations in the vSphere Storage documentation to
minimize the possibility of such errors.

vCenter Server, vSphere Client, and vSphere Web Client

Unable to add or edit new hardware version 10 devices while editing a virtual machine of version 10, using the vSphere client*
You are unable to add or edit new devices supported by a virtual machine with hardware version 10 (vmx-10) using the vSphere Client (C# Client). The vmx-10 devices such as SATA controller, SATA disks, and so on, might be displayed as inconsistent when you attempt to edit them using the vSphere Client (C# Client) tab.

Workaround: Use the vSphere Web Client to add or edit vmx-10 devices.

Timestamp for alerts or warnings issued are not updated in the Triggered column when using the vSphere Client*
When using the vSphere Client, on the vCenter Service Status page, the timestamp for alerts or warnings issued is not displayed in the Triggered column.

Workaround: None.

Drive information dialog box is not displayed when a mouse is placed over the vCenter Database warning if you use the vSphere Web Client*
When using the vSphere Web Client, if you navigate to Monitor > Service Health tab and hover the mouse pointer over the vCenter Database error message in the Message column, the drive information dialog box that should display details such as Free space, Used space, and Total Space is not displayed.

Workaround: None.

After you upgrade from vCenter Server 5.5 Update 1 to Update 2, the vCenter Server might not be visible on the vSphere Web Client*
If you have upgraded the vCenter Server using the upgrade path, vCenter Server 5.1 > 5.5 > 5.5 Update 1 > 5.5 Update 2, and you log in to vSphere Web Client with user admin@system-domain, the vCenter Server is not visible in the Inventory List on the vCenter Home page. This issue occurs because of an incorrect change in the registry key value.

Workaround: To resolve this issue follow these steps:

Change the registry value of SPSystemDomainBackCompat to 1.

Restart vCenter Single Sign-On and the VMware VirtualCenter Server service.

Storage profiles attached to some disks might not be visible in the vSphere Web Client UI
When you deploy virtual machines, the storage policies for some of the disks might not be visible in the vSphere Web Client UI under the Manage > VM Storage Policies tab.

Workaround: None.

Warning message persistently is displayed after Virtual SAN is disabled on a cluster
If no disk groups are created for a Virtual SAN enabled cluster, a warning message similar to the following is displayed on the Cluster Summary page:

vsan datastore datastore1 in cluster **** in datacenter **** does not have capacity

The error message continues to persist even after disabling Virtual SAN on the cluster. The issue does not occur if there are one or more disk groups created for a Virtual SAN cluster before disabling Virtual SAN on the cluster.

Workaround: None.

Client Integration Plug-In might not work as expected if you log in to the vSphere Web Client using Internet Explorer 11*
When you log in to the vSphere Web Client using Internet Explorer 11 and perform tasks related to Client Integration Plug-In, you might encounter issues listed here:

Attempts to launch a virtual machine console, where you have upgraded from Internet Explorer version 8 to version 11, fail with the following error message:

Remote Console is connecting

Attempts to connect to client device fails.

You cannot mount CD/DVD drive from local disk to a CD/DVD device.

Workaround: To resolve this issue use one of the following options:

Use Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or earlier versions of Internet Explorer to access the vSphere Web Client. You can also use vSphere Client instead of vSphere Web Client to work around this issue.

Launch the Internet Explorer in compatibility mode using the following steps:

Launch the Internet Explorer.

Go to Tools > Comatibility View Settings.

Add the vSphere Web Client IP address to the list of Websites.

Reload the Internet Explorer

Attempts to export log bundle using the Log Browser fail with vCenter Server 5.5
When you attempt to export a log bundle using the Log Browser interface after you upgrade from vCenter Server 5.5 version, the browser window displays a Secure Connection Failed error page with the following message:

Your certificate contains the same serial number as another certificate issued by the certificate authority. Please get a new certificate containing a unique serial number.

Workaround: You can perform one of the following:

To resolve problems with the Log Browser export, replace the default Log Browser SSL certificate with the signed SSL certificate using the SSL Certificate Automation Tool. See KB 2057340.

Note: The Log Browser and the Web Client SSL certificate are identical and are updated at the same time using the SSL Certificate Automation Tool.

Or

Use the System Logs tool for retrieving the support bundle for earlier versions of vCenter Server, perform the following steps:

In vSphere Web Client, navigate to vCenter Server or ESXi.

On the Monitor tab, click System Logs.

Click Export System Logs.

vCenter Server Appliance sets a wrong host name after deployment
If the vCenter Server Appliance is deployed with OVF environment that has static IP configuration and the host name is blank, reverse lookup from the IP is not performed properly.

Workaround: Explicitly set the vCenter Server Appliance host name you want in the OVF properties during deployment. See KB 2065275.

When you disable DRS in the vSphere Web Client, you are prompted to save the resource pool structure so that it can be reloaded in the future. The default extension of this file is .snapshot, but you can select a different extension for this file. If the file has a custom extension, it appears as disabled when you try to load it. This behavior is observed only on OS X.

Workaround: Change the extension to .snapshot to load it in the vSphere Web Client on OS X.

DRS error message appears on the host summary page
The following DRS error message appears on the host summary page:

Unable to apply DRS resource settings on host. The operation is not allowed in the current state. This can significantly reduce the effectiveness of DRS.

In some configurations a race condition might result in the creation of an error message in the log that is not meaningful or actionable. This error might occur if a virtual machine is unregistered at the same time that DRS resource settings are applied.

Workaround: Ignore this error message.

Attempts to disable IPv4 from DHCP to None in the Web console of a VMware vCenter Server Appliance that has IPv4 and IPv6 enabled fails with the error message Failed to set network settings
By default, both IPv4 and IPv6 are enabled on the default virtual network adapter of the vCenter Server Appliance. To disable IPv4 and use only IPv6, you log in to the Web Console at https://vCenter_Server_Appliance_IP_address:5480, click Network and on the Address tab for the default network adapter change the value of IPv4 Address Type from DHCP to None. When you try to save the changes, the error message Failed to set network settings appears.

Workaround: Set IPv4 Address Type to Static and then change it to None.

On the Address tab for the default network adapter change the value of IPv4 Address Type from DHCP to Static and save the changes.

Change the value of IPv4 Address Type from Static to None and save the changes.

VMware vCenter Server Appliance database disk usage
vCenter Server Appliance with the vPostgres embedded database might run out of disk space for the disk
partition. This might be caused by large or dynamic inventory retention settings. In most situations,
vPostgres disk space is filled by historical data kept for statistics, events, and tasks collected by
vCenter Server.

Workaround:
Change the vCenter Server data retention settings. Instructions can be found in the vSphere documentation:

For statistics, see "Configuring Statistics Settings in the vSphere Web Client" in vCenter Server
and Host Management.

For events and tasks, see "Configuring vCenter Server in the vSphere Web Client" in vCenter Server
and Host Management.

vCenter Server Appliance large scale
deployment requirements
For vCenter Server Appliance to manage large scale deployments, you must connect to a remote database and modify the virtual machine
settings. See Configure Inventory Size for the VMware vCenter Server Appliance in vCenter Server and Host
Management for information about memory and sizing options.

Workaround:

Ensure that virtual machines are configured with a minimum memory and CPU requirements.
For information about virtual machine configuration, see Configuring Virtual Machines in
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration. See Configure Inventory Size for the VMware vCenter Server Appliance in vCenter Server and Host
Management for information about memory options.

Log into the vCenter Server Appliance administration interface at
https://IP address or FQDN of vCenter Server Appliance:5480 and navigate to
Services. In the Inventory Size drop-down menu, select large
and click Save Settings.

The Client Integration Plug-in for the vSphere Web Client 5.5 is supported only on Mac OS 10.7 and later
The Client Integration Plug-in for the vSphere Web Client 5.5 is supported only on Mac OS 10.7 and later. On Mac OS 10.6.x or earlier, either the Client Support Plug-in does not register properly in the browser, or the OVF Tool displays runtime errors during OVF and OVA uploads or downloads.

Workaround: Upgrade the Mac OS to 10.7 or 10.8.

Default folder names generated by the vCenter Server Appliance do not reflect the browser's language setting
When you access the vCenter Server Appliance using the vSphere Web Client, default folder names generated by the server, such as Discovered Virtual Machines, do not reflect the browser's language setting.

Log in to the vCenter Server Appliance configuration interface at https://hostname:5480.

On the vCenter Server tab, select Summary.

Click Stop vCenter.

Click Start vCenter.

Attempts to log in using the vSphere Client to vCenter Server fail with an error stating that an unknown connection error occurred
Attempts to log in using the vSphere Client installed on Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 to a vCenter Sever fail with the following error: An unknown connection error occurred. (The Client could not send a complete request to the server. (The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send.)). The error is caused by the lack of support for some SSL ciphers on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

No hotfix is available for Windows XP (32 bit). Microsoft provides limited support for Windows XP, and the hotfix has not been released for it. You must upgrade your host operating system to Windows Vista or later, which supports the use of high cipher strengths.

You cannot view the Solutions tab of the EAM Sample Solution in Internet Explorer
When you click the Solutions tab of the EAM Sample Solution in the vSphere Web Client, an error message might appear: Navigation to the webpage was canceled.

Workaround: View the Solutions tab of the EAM Sample Solution in another browser, such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.
Alternatively, install the EAM Sample Solution SSL certificate in Internet Explorer.

In Internet Explorer, navigate to the EAM Sample Solution management page at the address that you specify while setting up the EAM Sample Solution.The default URL is http://<IP_adress_of_machine_where_you_install_the_solution>:8080/eam-sample.

vCenter Server Appliance checks user permissions based on case-insensitive user name matching
In previous vSphere releases, the vCenter Server Appliance used case-sensitive matching for user names when checking user permissions. In the vSphere 5.5 release, the vCenter Server Appliance uses case-insensitive matching for user names when checking permissions. This means that two users whose user names differ only in case (for example, User1 and user1) are treated as the same user when vCenter Server checks permissions.

Workaround: If your vCenter Server Appliance has users whose names differ only in case, rename at least one of the users, and reassign permissions to the renamed users.

Error message appears and no vCenter Server instances are available in the vSphere Web Client inventory after you log in
You might encounter this problem when the vCenter Server instance is managing an inventory that is too large and operating under a heavy load.

Workaround: Log out and log in to the vSphere Web Client. If this does not resolve the problem, verify that your vSphere environment is running within the recommended configuration maximums.

Virtual Machine Management

vCenter Database parameters for Warning and Alert not displayed in the Advanced Settings tab*
After you perform a minor upgrade to vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2 and log in to vCenter Server using the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client, the Warning parameter config.vpxd.vdb.space.warningMB and the Alert parameter config.vpxd.vdb.space.alertMB are not displayed under vCenter Server Settings > Advanced Settings tab or in the vpxd.cfg file. Although, the parameters are missing, they are triggered at the default values of 5000 MB and 1000 MB respectively.

Workaround: To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

Log in to vCenter Server using the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client

Go to vCenter Server Settings > Advanced Settings

Add the parameters config.vpxd.vdb.space.warningMB for warning and config.vpxd.vdb.space.alertMB for alert as shown in the example here:

Virtual machine guest OS does not detect Control key sent from HTML 5 console in Chrome
When you attempt to sent a Control command to a virtual machine from an HTML 5 console in Chrome, the guest operating system does not react.

Workaround: Use an HTML 5 console in Firefox, or use the virtual machine console in the vSphere Web Client.

Virtual Machines report USB connection errors when connecting to USB devices attached to a Mac OS X client computer
When you connect USB devices to virtual machines from a Mac OS X client computer, you
see an Error connecting device message in the following cases:

You connect more than one USB device or hub to a virtual machine from a Mac OS X client computer.

You add a USB device when multiple devices are incorrectly listed as available to connect to the USB controller on the virtual machine, but the devices are already in use by another virtual machine or by the client computer.

Workaround: Ensure that another virtual machine or client computer is not using the USB device, and connect only one USB device or
hub from a Mac OS X client computer to a virtual machine.

Migration

Virtual machine drag and drop is not supported across hosts
You use the vSphere Web Client and attempt to drag and drop a
virtual machine from one host to another. A red X indicates that drag and drop
is not supported.

Workaround: Use the Migrate VM action or right-click the virtual machine and
select Move to to start the migration wizard.

Changing datastores through migration is not allowed if the number of virtual disks is greater than 64
Storage vMotion and vMotion without shared storage support migration of a virtual machine with up to 64 virtual disks. If the number of virtual disks to be moved is greater than 64, the migration operation is not allowed.
However, if you use Storage vMotion to selectively move less than 64 disks or to move only the home directory of the virtual machine, the operation succeeds even for the virtual machine with the maximum supported number of virtual disks.

Workaround:

For Storage vMotion, perform multiple migrations, each with up to 64 disks.
Use the Advanced option on the Migrate virtual machine wizard to select disks to migrate and to specify the datastore location.

For vMotion without shared storage, power off the virtual machine to perform migration.

A successful Storage vMotion operation in a vSphere HA cluster might result in an orphaned virtual machine
After you migrate a virtual machine with Storage vMotion in a vSphere HA cluster, an orphaned virtual machine with the same name might remain in the vCenter Server inventory. This error can occur if vSphere HA attempts to restart the virtual machine that is being migrated, before the Storage vMotion workflow finishes. The attempt can be triggered in situations such as the following:

The master host detects a possible failure impacting the virtual machine, such as a network interruption.

In an environment without Virtual SAN, the master hosts regains access to the virtual machine datastore.

In an environment with Virtual SAN, the master host detects a change in Virtual SAN object accessibility. For example, the host has recently rejoined the Virtual SAN network after a network partition.

Workaround: Delete the orphaned virtual machine.

VMware HA and Fault Tolerance

X-vMotion of a Virtual SAN virtual machine out of an HA cluster might result in an alarm
When you perform an X-vMotion of a Virtual SAN virtual machine from High Availability (HA) cluster to a different cluster and to a different storage, the virtual machine reports an alarm similar to the following:

vSphere HA virtual machine failover failed

Workaround: None.

When you enable admission control for a vSphere HA cluster, an error message
is shown
When you enable admission control on a vSphere HA cluster with powered-on virtual machines,
the following error message appears: An internal error has occured - Unknown property: '-1.

Workaround: The message has no functional impact, but you must reload the client to continue.

vSphere HA might fail to restart a virtual machine with a vSphere Flash Read Cache reservation
When a virtual machine with a vSphere Flash Read Cache reservation is powered on, the host it resides on uses some normal (RAM) memory to manage this flash reservation. If sufficient memory is not available, then the virtual machine power on fails. vSphere HA retries such failed power on operations but only four more times. If the fifth power on attempt fails, vSphere HA issues an event reporting that the maximum number of restart attempts has been reached. Note: To list the vSphere HA issued events, you can search the event history for the phrase "vSphere HA".

Workaround: If vSphere HA fails to restart a virtual machine and you observe a vSphere HA event reporting that the maximum number of attempts have been made to restart it, attempt to power on the virtual machine manually on one of the hosts. If the power on operation fails and a reason is given, address that issue.

However, if this power on task fails for an unexplained reason or if the task error stack reports that the vSphere Flash Read Cache cannot be attached, either try another host or reduce the memory needs of the vSphere Flash Read Cache and try again. You can do this by either

configuring a larger vSphere Flash Read Cache block size for the virtual machine or another virtual machine running on the same host, or

significantly reducing the vSphere Flash Read Cache reservation of one or more of these virtual machines.

If you follow the vSphere Flash Read Cache configuration recommendations documented in the vSphere Storage guide and the vSphere 5.5 Beta Release Notes, you can minimize the possibility of encountering this type of error.

vSphere HA does not reattempt the placement of virtual machines that failed due to anti-affinity constraints, after changes are made to the vm-vm anti-affinity rule
If vSphere HA fails to restart a virtual machine due to an anti-affinity constraint, no re-attempt is made if you change the vm-vm anti-affinity rule or remove it.

Workaround: The vSphere HA master host reattempts placing a virtual machine waiting for resources after the unreserved capacity in the cluster is increased. To increase this capacity, power off a virtual machine, migrate it to another cluster using vMotion, then

bring back on-line a failed host, or

add another host to the cluster, or

reduce the resources reserved by any of the powered-on virtual machines.

Under certain conditions, a virtual machine does not reset despite the appState being appStateNeedReset
A virtual machine is not reset if the needReset appstate is issued using the Application Monitoring GuestSDK when the virtual machine is on a standalone host and the host is moved to a cluster which has VM and App Monitoring enabled. This could also occur if the FDM process restarts on the host while the needReset request is pending. For example this error can occur when reconfiguring vSphere HA or if the service crashes after a needReset state has been issued for a virtual machine using the Application Monitoring GuestSDK.

Workaround: Trigger a blank Reconfigure cluster task for the vSphere HA cluster containing the hosts. The virtual machine's needReset state is picked up by the FDM on the host, which resets the virtual machine. In the vSphere Web Client go to the Edit Cluster Settings panel and click Edit. Press OK on the Cluster Settings panel without changing anything on the cluster. This triggers a blank Reconfigure cluster task.

Miscellaneous

Error messages appear when you attempt to log in to the vSphere Web Client by using Google Chrome on Mac OS X 10.7.x in certain language and format locales
You encounter Error 2007 and Error 1009 and cannot log in when you use Google Chrome 23 running on Mac OS X 10.7.x. The problem is present if the operating system language and format are set to French, German, Japanese, Korean, or Russian. For the problem to appear, Google Chrome must be installed before switching the operating system locale and the browser must use Flash Player 11.5.31.5 or 11.5.31.139.

Workaround: Perform one of the following tasks:

Change the Flash Player version to 11.5.502.136 or 11.5.31.137.

Switch to English locale and restart the browser.

Switch to English locale, uninstall Chrome, switch back to the locale of choice, and reinstall Chrome.

You cannot access the vSphere Web Client by using some Firefox versions with certain operating systems in an IPv6 network environment
In the Windows and Linux versions of Firefox 18.0.2, you cannot access URLs in an IPv6 environment. On some supported Linux distribution, such as SLES/SLED 11, you cannot use the bundled Firefox 10.x browser, because the browser does not accept SSL certificates for IPv6 addresses. For information about this third-party issue, see Mozilla bug 633001.

Workaround: Use other supported browsers such as Google Chrome or Internet Explorer.

The vSphere Web Client displays error messages in zh, zh-hans, and zh-hant locales
If the browser locale has been set to Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese, the vSphere Web Client might display errors when you perform some operations, such as managing objects, licensing, and datacenter creation. In the Recent Tasks pane, the following message might appear: Unable to create the managed object for <string>. Additional error messages appear as notifications. The problem occurs in Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox.

Workaround: Change the browser locale and restart the browser.

The VMware vSphere Web Client service does not start on Turkish versions of Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2012
When you install the server component of the vSphere Web Client on a Turkish version of Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2012, the service does not start after the installation finishes.

Workaround: Install the vSphere Web Client on a version of Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2012 that is in another language.